Stags in the storm

October sees the South Ayrshire Stalking team heavily involved in red stags, as you would imagine. Not to miss out, I was up at Kinnaird Estate for a week towards the end of the season when stags should be fully engaged in the rut. The more astute of you will note the words, ‘should be’. The rut of 2018 was very late starting – some even wondered if it would happen at all, due to the scorching summer. We had temperatures reaching more than 20C on 10 October – very nice of course, but stalking stags on the hill in t-shirts just didn’t feel right.

I would have expected the first roars around the third week in September, with activity full-on by the second week in October – but not this time. I had numerous conversations with stalkers on the adjacent hills, who said it was the worst start for over 30 years. I was therefore more than a little concerned when we arrived to again blazing sunshine, coupled with a Met Office doom-and-gloom forecast that said storm